Derbyshire players Ben Slater, Alex Hughes, Luis Reece, Matt Critchley and Neil Broom are all playing cricket abroad this winter and here is how they are getting on in early stages of the season.
Slater and Hughes are both playing for Kingston Hawthorn CC in the Victorian Premier League and have, so far, played in three fixtures for their new club.
On debut, Hughes was the match-winner, hitting 45 down the order to take his side home in a low-scoring match against Essendon. In the following match, Slater hit his first half-century for Kingston Hawthorn, whilst Hughes picked up his first wicket.
In their most recent match, Slater and Hughes hit 13 and 16 respectively, whilst the latter took 1-28 with the ball.
New signing Reece, meanwhile, is playing for Gosnells CC in the First Grade of cricket in the Western Australia Cricket Association, having played for them previously during his time at Lancashire.
On his first appearance, he struck 42 but did not feature with the ball. He has, however, taken centre-stage with his left-arm pace in the two matches since, returning 3-10 in one match, and 2-20 the following week.
As part of the ECB’s men’s International Pathway, leg-spinner Critchley was awarded an Overseas Placement is playing for Randwick-Petersham CC in the New South Wales Premier League. He has, to date, played one fixture for his Sydney-based club and returned 1-78 on debut.
Over in New Zealand, Broom is once again playing for the Otago Volts in their first-class competition after agreeing to be their overseas player for the 2016/17 season, after playing for Derbyshire as a UK qualified player last season.
In their first match of the season, Broom was in fine form, falling just seven runs short of his 18th-first class century, having hit 93 from just 147 balls as Otago racked up 479-5 declared in their first innings against Central Districts with former Falcon Hamish Rutherford hitting a century.
Follow @DerbyshireCCC on Twitter for the latest updates on the Derbyshire players overseas this winter, whilst there will also be round-ups on derbyshireccc.com throughout the winter.
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